A stress-deformation analysis method for earth-rockfill dams considering the initial over-consolidation of dam materials

In earth-rockfill dams, the earth and rockfill materials for dam construction can reach very dense state after high-intensity roller compaction, and thus often appear over-consolidated. In conventional stress-deformation analysis of earth-rockfill dams, this over-consolidation characteristic is not considered, which often results in larger deformation prediction for low dams while smaller deformation prediction for high dams. Through the setting of an initial yield surface or loading function, this paper presents a stress-deformation analysis method to consider the initial over-consolidation of dam materials. Specific implementation schemes for Shenzhujiang's double-yield-surface model and Duncan-Chang EB model are discussed respectively. Stress-deformation analyses, with and without considering the initial over-consolidation of dam materials, are performed for earth-rockfill dams of different height. The results show that the proposed method can effectively resolve the larger result for low dams, smaller result for high dams problem of deformation calculation for earth-rockfill dams.